It is the usual practice in sausage production for the filling of a sausage which is to be formed to be conveyed by way of a filling tube into a tube-like or bag-like packaging material which is closed at one end. After the filling operation is concluded, a twisted braid portion which is free of filling material is formed by means of two members referred to as displacer plates. Two closure means, referred to as clips, are then applied to that braid portion, and close the packaging material on both sides of the braid portion. Thereafter that portion is severed therebetween. If the sausage is later to be hung up for example for the purposes of smoking or storage, for example a suspension loop is fed thereto in such a way that, when the clip is fitted, it is embraced by the clip and is thus secured to the sausage.
The term loops in accordance with this invention is used to denote all means, on which articles can be hung up.
Many sausage products are subsequently subjected to further processing for example in a smoking chamber. For that purpose the sausages have to be hung up individually and separately at their loops in such a way that as far as possible they do not touch each other. The degree of automation is not very far advanced in this field so that at the present time sausages are still hung on smoking rails by hand.
An exception is afforded by the apparatus which is known from DE 34 37 830 or DE 38 06 467 and by means of which the loops which are threaded on by a pick-up means are transferred by way of a pneumatically linearly driven slider onto an endless chain which circulates in a vertical plane. The sausages are transported away in a condition of hanging on those loops by the upper half of the chain. The reciprocating movement of the slider which is cyclic in respect of time, means that the sausages can be separated at uniform spacings on the chain.
When the chain is filled over a given region of its total length, a 180° pivotal movement of the chain drive about the longitudinal axis thereof is implemented, whereby a smoking rail which embraces the previously lower half of the chain is pivoted upwardly so that the loops are transferred from the previously upper half of the chain onto the smoking rail and comes to lie thereon.
A disadvantage with an apparatus of that nature however is that the configuration of the slider with means for transfer of the sausage supplied by the pick-up means onto the chain and the configuration of the pivotal mechanism for transfer of the sausage from the chain onto the smoking rail are highly complicated and expensive. There is also the disadvantage that the smoking rail is a special and thus expensive item of manufacture which at the same time serves to cover over the lower half of the chain. There is also the disadvantage that the drive for the chain is discontinuous: the chain is driven until it is completely loaded, then it is stopped, whereupon a 180° pivotal movement of the entire chain drive is effected. That requires a considerable level of mechanical expenditure and slows down the conveying process.
Another apparatus for transporting strings of a plurality of mutually attached sausages is known from DE 32 38 023. That apparatus has a conveyor belt on which the string of sausages is transported in one direction. That conveyor belt is adjoined by a transport screw which is mounted pivotably to an eccentric arm and to which the strings of sausages are transferred. That is effected by a procedure whereby the sausages fall successively downwardly due to the force of gravity at the end of the conveyor belt and due to the relative movement of the conveyor belt with respect to the transport screw are suspended thereover transversely to the direction of rotation of the screw. In addition at the end of the transport screw, by virtue of the sweeping eccentric movement thereof, the strings of sausages can only be transferred by a dropping movement onto a linearly synchronously extendable smoking rail.
Both transfer processes are not possible however when dealing with closed loops on which individual sausages or strings of sausages are hung. In addition, an increase level of mechanical complication and expenditure is required for that purpose in each case as the various movements of the conveyor belt, the transport screw and the smoking rail have to be synchronized. Finally, the operation of depositing the string of sausages on the smoking rail is not very precise.